In her thoughtful and eloquent TED Talk, Roxane Gay breaks down why the phrase “bad feminist” (the one she became so well-known for) is a bit of a misnomer. It began as something of a joke with herself—Gay asks whether she’s a “bad feminist” for listening to misogynistic rap or enjoying fashion magazines. But, as Gay explains, it’s more complicated than that; feminism has become “an F-word, and not a nice word.” It is an accusation, creating a culture of criticism and fear. Read More

Model Ashley Graham just gave an incredible TED Talk on the importance of loving your body and the discrimination she faces on a daily basis in the fashion industry. Addressing an audience of over 400 people in Valencia, Spain, Graham discussed her struggles as a model and how she came to accept her figure as it is.
She spoke about how the term “plus-sized model” made her feel like an outsider in the fashion world, despite having a successful modeling career. Read More

BUSTies, we hope your weekend is off to a great start. Here are some stories you may want to catch up on before you go out and celebrate.
Did you know that women own and manage breweries all around the U.S? Yup, we find that to be pretty badass too.
The BomBaebs released an epic Rap Against Rape video in which they speak out about the rape culture in India.
Tarynn Brumfitt is the founder of Body Image Movement and the creator of new documentary Embrace, which sets out to change the way women view their body.
Here are 9 Empowering TED talks on Feminism all in one place. Read More

In 2012, educator Al Vernacchio gave a TED talk about everyone’s favorite things: pizza and sex. He was concerned with the fact that sex has too often been associated with baseball. Personally, I love this new pizza metaphor for sex. Whenever I heard the baseball/sex metaphor it was usually a man talking and I mean come on! It’s such a sexist way to describe sex. Plus I never liked baseball, so I’m a little biased.
Vernacchio shares my dislike of the metaphor prevalent in our culture. Read More

I like to think of Mary Roach as Queen of All Things Awkward. Her publications include Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, in which she addressed practicing cosmetic surgery on cadavers, crucifixion experiments and human head transplant. She also wrote the book Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, whose chapters included “Big Gulp: How to survive being swallowed alive” and “Stuffed: The science of eating yourself to death. Read More

“My aspiration in life, is to be happy” begins Beyoncé’s song “Pretty Hurts” off her album BEYONCÉ. Apparently her aspiration is to make quite a lot of other people happy as well.
On June 3rd CHIME FOR CHANGE co-founder Beyoncé Knowles-Carter presented a $125,0000 donation to Embrace Innovations to provide 320 Embrace infant warmers to 100 rural health facilities in 11 Millennium Village sites across 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Mali, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, Tanzania, Rwanda, Malawi and Ethiopia). Read More

Caroline Heldman’s talk, “The Sexy Lie,” at TEDxYouth in San Diego tackled the very prevalent issue of sexual objectification—specifically, the idea that being sexually objectified is empowering. TED talks have gained a reputation for showcasing intelligent people presenting various enlightenments and challenges to their listeners, and Heldman does not disappoint. Her twelve-minute talk is concisely accurate without losing any of its poignancy.
Heldman starts by defining sexual objectification. Read More

This TED Talk is an amazing breath of fresh air with an extremely positive and powerful message to men everywhere. Jackson Katz, Ph.D, discusses important issues involving gender violence prevention, as he works with men and boys in sports and the military to combat the perpetuation of this critical problem. As an author, educator, filmmaker, and anti-sexist activist, Katz is basically a dude after my own heart. Bonus: he co-founded and created the Mentors in Violence Prevention program, which supports the "bystander approach" to sexual and domestic violence prevention. Just watch the video. Read More